Netanyahu vows to act against Houthis, Israel acknowledges difficulty in gathering intelligence

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened the Houthi group on Sunday to act against them "with force and determination", the day after they launched a missile from Yemen that fell in Tel Aviv, wounding 20 people, while Israeli security authorities acknowledged the difficulty of obtaining intelligence information.

Netanyahu said in a video clip broadcast by his office: "Just as we acted forcefully against the armed wings of the Iranian axis of evil, we will act against the Houthis... with force, determination and shrewdness," he claimed.

The Yemeni missile attack came after the Israeli occupation launched, last Thursday morning, a series of raids on the cities of Sana'a and Hodeidah, targeting power plants, ports and oil facilities, which resulted in the deaths of at least nine civilians and significant damage to the infrastructure in Yemen.

The Israeli Air Force revealed, in an investigation it conducted, the reason for its failure to intercept the missile launched by the Houthis on Saturday, saying that a malfunction occurred in the interceptor missile that led to the failure to intercept the missile.

The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that the Houthis have launched 201 missiles and more than 170 explosive drones at Israel since the beginning of the war, most of which were intercepted by the Americans, the Air Force and the Navy.

On Saturday evening, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the Air Force had carried out precision strikes against a missile storage facility and a Houthi command and control facility in Sanaa. The US Central Command said in a statement: “We shot down drones and an anti-ship cruise missile during our Houthi strikes.”

The Houthis announced today, Sunday, that they shot down an F-18 plane while trying to confront American and British planes that launched raids on Yemen yesterday evening, Saturday, while the American army announced that it shot down a plane by mistake with friendly fire.

The Houthi spokesman said that they also targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and a number of its destroyers, and succeeded in thwarting an American-British attack on sites in Yemen late Saturday evening.

The US military announced on Sunday morning that an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet had accidentally crashed over the Red Sea, forcing the pilots to eject, according to the Associated Press.

He said the incident occurred during a mission by the fighter plane that was flying over the aircraft carrier "Harry S. Truman", and explained that one of the accompanying ships, the missile cruiser "Gettysburg", accidentally fired on the plane, which led to its destruction.

Read more

Can the Israeli occupation attack the Houthi military capabilities in Yemen?

Difficulty in gathering intelligence

The Hebrew newspaper Maariv reported today, Sunday, that the Israeli security establishment "acknowledges the difficulty of collecting intelligence" that would enable it to reach the missile warehouses of the Houthi group in Yemen.

According to the newspaper, the Military Intelligence Division (Aman) is focusing its activity on establishing a military and strategic target bank for the Houthi group in Yemen, noting that the Israeli Air Force "is preparing to respond to the attacks launched by the Houthis against Israel in the past few days."

The newspaper explained that the missile that the Israeli interception systems failed to intercept yesterday, Saturday, and fell in Tel Aviv, is a developed model of the Iranian-made "Khaybar" missile; which, according to it, "had its warhead reduced in quantity; more solid fuel was added to it in order to improve its flight range and speed, immediately after it exited the atmosphere."

The Israeli army and the security establishment acknowledge - according to the Israeli newspaper - that the problem of fighting the Houthis is particularly complex, due to the difficulty of gathering intelligence information and the difficulty of reaching missile warehouses and not being satisfied with bombing facilities in ports and fuel barrels.

(AFP, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed)